


i would wish that over this distance, i could be right there now with you

by eynn



Series: had a dream, you and me in the war of the end times [12]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Nobody Dies, Time Travel Fix-It, anakin and padme are ahsoka's parents but anakin still doesn't realize that, i love their broship, padme and ahsoka have a chat, padme and cody were bros in the past and they are bros now, then padme and cody have a chat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27548572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eynn/pseuds/eynn
Summary: Ahsoka stirs, stretches a little, and yawns, showing her spiky teeth. Then she sees Anakin.“I hate you!” she screeches, leaps off Padmé’s lap, and runs out of the room.“Hey,” Anakin says, starting to his feet again. He looks between the slammed door and Padmé in confusion. “What was that about?”Padmé sighs. “She’s jealous of the time you are spending with Rex and feels that you don’t want her.”
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala & CC-2224 | Cody, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Series: had a dream, you and me in the war of the end times [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1713040
Comments: 58
Kudos: 806





	i would wish that over this distance, i could be right there now with you

Padmé smiles as she hears the light footsteps approaching her door. It’s become something of a routine for Ahsoka to come relax in their room after she trains, and Padmé enjoys time with her with a new intensity now.

It took too long in the Before for her to meet Ahsoka, for all that Anakin worried about her and asked for help when she was suddenly assigned to him the first time. Now, she wants to be there as much as possible for the daughter-she-never-had-the-first-time-around, watch her grow and learn, just as much as she wants to part of her biological children’s lives.

She sets out a glass and a plate for her and sits down just as Ahsoka enters, and takes a few moments to just look at the girl as she toes off her boots and flops with dramatic exhaustion into the chair across from her.

She’s so _young_. Her montrals barely brush her shoulders, her voice is still pitched high like a child’s. She only carries one lightsaber and still refuses to wear clothes that give her more protection from cold and injury – Anakin had said something once about texture aversion and having a hard time avoiding tearing the fabric with her sharp little fingernails, maybe she should do something about that.

“Isn’t Master Skywalker out of the infirmary yet?” she says, unwrapping a ration bar. Her teeth flash for a moment as she takes a bite and Padmé realizes that she still hasn’t lost all her milk teeth, her sharp ones haven’t come in yet.

Then she registers what Ahsoka said.

“He’s in the infirmary? Willingly?”

“I went to look for him after I finished training with the boys and apparently Rex fell asleep on the bridge and he made him go there and none of them have come out yet.” She huffs a little angrily. “He was supposed to train with me.”

“Who else is there?”

“Master Kenobi and his commander.”

“Finish your snack and then we’ll go see what’s going on.”

Ahsoka pouts, but turns her attention to the food. “Where’s the babies?” she says, spraying crumbs.

Padmé smiles. “Their favorite babysitters wanted to spend some time with them.”

She’d been a little nervous about entrusting her children to the care of other children, no matter how skilled they were in combat, but Anakin had assured her that he trusted Waxer to take better care of them than he could himself, and that Tup would be very careful with them as well despite his being so young. Now, when she’s seen how happy the vod’e are to have the babies around, she feels much more secure in handing them off occasionally so she can have some time for other things.

“ – why he spends so much time with them,” Ahsoka is grumbling.

“Sorry, what?” Padmé asks.

“Why does he spend so much time with them and not with me? I’m his padawan! Not them! Why won’t he let me fight? I did good in the battle last time, didn’t I? But he barely lets me train anymore. What did I do wrong?” Ahsoka flings the wrapper from her bar across the room and slams her fists on the table, clearly fighting back tears.

“You did nothing wrong, little one,” Padmé reassures, gently pulling the girl over to sit half beside her and half on her lap, wrapping her up in her arms. “He’s just worried about you.”

“I can fight!” Ahsoka insists, fists clenching and a small angry sob escaping.

“I know you can, and so does he. He’s very proud of you, Ahsoka. He just – the first time we lived through this, you became a brilliant duelist, an excellent Jedi, a very capable general. But you’re so young, and he hates that you had to become a soldier now, before you’ve grown.”

“I’m not a baby! And stop trying to make me believe that you know what’s going to happen. That’s just stupid. Everything’s stupid now.” She sniffles against Padmé’s shoulder. “I was so happy when I got assigned to him because he was, like, the master everyone in the creche wanted, he was so nice to us and cool and such a good fighter, and Master Kenobi always would come play with us and talk to us and he’s practically a _legend_ for fighting a Sith and everyone knows they’re always together so. Whoever got one of them would learn all sorts of amazing things. But neither of them are anything like they always were in the Temple and I –”

Padmé rocks Ahsoka back and forth and thinks of how to explain their situation. “They’ve been fighting for a little over three years. They’ve seen horrible things, had horrible things done to them and to the people they love. That leaves scars, and they probably won’t ever be completely free of the weight of them. They both love you very much, sweetheart. They want to keep you from going through those horrible things alongside them this time.”

“What does that even _mean_?” Ahsoka almost squeals, as Padmé winces. “Why do you keep insisting that you’ve done this before? That’s stupid, it’s not possible. Why don’t you trust me with what really happened to make you guys all _weird_?” She scrubs angrily at her face.

“We came back in time, like we told you before,” Padmé tries to explain. “Anakin, Obi-Wan, and I. That’s the truth, Ahsoka. The three of us lived through the war, we lost, everything was burning, and then Anakin did something very stupid and regretted it enough that he accidentally sent us back here, to the beginning of the war.”

Ahsoka is shaking her head. “No,” she insists. “That’s not possible.”

“Anakin is very powerful, Ahsoka. You must be able to feel that. He also has a special connection to the Force. Even I don’t know exactly what it is, but he can do things that other people can’t.”

“Who are you, anyway?”

Padmé blinks at the sudden accusatory glare from the preteen crying on her lap. “I’m Padmé?”

“No, who are you? Why did you come back with them like you keep saying? Why not me? How do you even know them?”

“I’m Anakin’s wife, and Obi-Wan and I have been friends since we met when I was fourteen.”

The look of shock that freezes Ahsoka into stillness is almost enough to make Padmé laugh. “But you have babies!”

“Yes.”

“They’re Master Skywalker’s?” she squeaks.

“I’m afraid so,” Padmé says sympathetically. She doesn’t like to think about her parents having sex either.

“Where did he meet you? Why did you get married to him?”

“He met me on Tatooine, where he used to live before he joined the Order, and we got married because we love each other.”

“No! I mean – why didn’t I know you from around the Temple? What did you do before?”

“Oh! I’m not a Jedi, Ahsoka. I’m – well, I was a senator. I never lived in the Temple.”

Ahsoka is staring at her with round eyes, tears forgotten in outraged shock. “You’re not even a Jedi?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“But, but –” Ahsoka’s nails are slowly shredding the cushion of the chair behind Padmé’s back; she can see now why the girl doesn’t like sleeves.

“I’m telling the truth about us travelling back in time, I swear.” She smiles. “The last time I saw you, you were in my apartment for dinner. You were taller than me, and going to be taller than Anakin if you kept growing. You were thinking about getting a tattoo on your next successful campaign because you had finally settled into your adult coloration and you’d always wanted to get one once you saw what the vod’e could do, and you were asking me for advice on asking out a girl you had a crush on.”

Ahsoka is staring at her.

“Then you went on a mission for him with half of the 501st, but Anakin had to stay on Coruscant with the rest, and . . .” Padmé stops.

“Then why didn’t I come with you if you did come back in time?”

“We – there was a – We lost the war because someone sabotaged the vod’e. They had slave chips put inside their heads and they could control them, make them do whatever they wanted. They forced them to turn on us. Anakin and Obi-Wan and possibly Master Yoda were the only ones who survived that we knew of, and you were so far away, on your own, with only the vod’e to back you up, we –” Padmé arms tighten around Ahsoka and she lets her head drop to rest on top of hers. “You were gone, little one.”

“I died?”

There is a long silence.

“I don’t know for certain. Anakin would know. But I don’t see how you could possibly have survived . . . that.”

“Is that why he didn’t let me go with him to Rishi? Because I wasn’t good enough to escape like he did?”

“No, Ahsoka, no. It’s not that you’re not good enough or work hard enough or anything like that. He just wants to keep you safe. We all do.”

“But if the clones are going to turn on us, why are we still here?”

“They don’t want to, they were forced to by the chips. We’re safe now because we’ve cut off all communication, and we’re working out how to remove them without hurting them. They don’t want to be forced to do things against their will,” Padmé tries to explain. “The Sith took over their minds.”

“Is that why Master Skywalker’s spending all his time with them and not with me?”

“Partially, yes. I think he also –” Padmé sighs. “He thinks he failed you, little one. He blames himself that you were alone at the end, and for the things that happened to you before that. I think he’s thinking that you deserve a better master.”

“I don’t want another master!” Ahsoka sobs. “I want him!”

“I know,” she says, holding her tight. “I know. We’ll talk some sense into him, ner’ad.”

~

She’s still holding Ahsoka when they come back, Anakin and Obi-Wan and Cody.

Anakin smiles at seeing them together, and looks around for their younger children.

“Waxer and Tup have them,” she says. “Ahsoka’s had a snack and done her training.”

Anakin takes the chair Ahsoka was using, and Obi-Wan and Cody settle on the bunk. They really need to get more chairs.

Maybe they can knock down a wall and use the room next to them as well, if nobody’s in it.

Ahsoka stirs, stretches a little, and yawns, showing her spiky teeth. Then she sees Anakin.

“I hate you!” she screeches, leaps off Padmé’s lap, and runs out of the room.

“Hey,” Anakin says, starting to his feet again. He looks between the slammed door and Padmé in confusion. “What was that about?”

Padmé sighs. “She’s jealous of the time you are spending with Rex and feels that you don’t want her.”

“Of course I want her!”

“Go after her,” she says wearily. “Spend some time with her, don’t freak out on her. Teach her a new move or something. Listen to her before you react.”

He gets up and pauses in the door as if he’s had a sudden thought. “That sounds a lot like being a parent, Padmé.”

“Aren’t we?” she says, smiling at him. “Go on, Ani. She needs you.”

He heads off, looking vaguely like he’s been hit over the head by something heavy.

Obi-Wan sighs. “Sometimes I wonder how someone can be so smart and yet so dumb at the same time.”

“What a mood,” Padmé agrees. She turns to her caf, abandoned when Ahsoka had needed her more. It’s almost cold, but she doesn’t mind. “I don’t think it’s hit him that we have biological children yet either.”

“How does that work?” Cody asks. He’s tucked into Obi-Wan’s side; they’re clutching each other’s hands. “I thought that Jedi didn’t get biological children.”

“It’s not typical, but it does happen. Not as, ah, determinedly as Anakin, though,” Obi-Wan answers.

“I suppose that explains the books on parenting I had to pick up for Rex to deliver to Anakin,” Cody says thoughtfully. “I thought that Anakin was trying something new on the shinies, since they were getting so young.”

Padmé can’t help it; she snorts caf out her nose with the force of her laughter. “He was actually reading parenting books? I can’t believe it.”

Obi-Wan tosses her a napkin.

She freezes in the middle of trying to wipe off her face. “Cody?”

They look at each other. He still looks so much younger, but there is a depth in his eyes that wasn’t there the last time she saw him. And his body language with Obi-Wan shows years of familiarity with how they fit together.

“Yeah,” he says, looking down and pressing his shoulder to Obi-Wan’s. “I – remember stuff. Not anything coherent all the time, but I remember how I felt about people, and I can remember specific things when they come up. Like picking up those books for Rex.”

“How?” she asks, her heart beating high in her throat. Maybe she can save Sabé and her other handmaidens, Bail and Breha, Riyo . . .

The pair on the bed glance at each other and shrug in unison. “Anakin did something,” Obi-Wan says. “I could feel our old bond, or where it was, but it was just loose, and then Anakin sort of reached out and connected us again, and then Cody remembered.”

“So it was an accident?”

“He did it by accident, but I think he’s trying to work out how he did it so he can do it again.” Obi-Wan sighs and runs his free hand through his hair. “He needs to ask before he just goes around stuffing memories into people’s heads.”

“We are going to have a talk about that as soon as he comes back from settling Ahsoka down,” Padmé promises. She knows that Anakin’s possessive and protective streak can sometimes mean he does things that he thinks or knows will help his people without actually asking for their consent first.

“Good.” Obi-Wan sighs, turning his head to nuzzle into Cody’s hair. “He gets a little tetchy when I try to talk about things like that with him.”

“I think it’s because of Palpatine,” Padmé says. “He’s always so angry when he comes back from talking with him.”

“Palpatine?” Cody says, freezing.

“Oh, yeah,” she says. “He’s the one running both sides of the war.”

“He what.”

“That’s why we shut off all the communicators,” Obi-Wan says gently. “So he can’t contact us and make you turn on us.”

Cody is beginning to tremble.

“We’re safe now, he can’t get to us. We know his tricks and we can stop them – Cody,” he protests as he is scooped up and deposited in the corner of the room between a tall cupboard and the wall. Cody curls around him, shaking. After a moment he scans the room and his eyes lock on Padmé.

“Cody, no –” Obi-Wan says, trying to hold him back, but he breaks free of him and crosses the room. For a moment Padmé is afraid as he looms over her, hands shaking and a blank determination on his face, but he only snatches her out of her chair and half carries her across the room, back to the corner, where he bundles her into the corner and sits down beside her, nearly squishing her into the wall. He hauls Obi-Wan into his lap and contorts himself so that he can both shield them from the door and watch it at the same time.

Obi-Wan and Padmé look at each other.

“I know,” Cody whispers. “I know we’re safe. I just can’t believe it.”

Slowly, making it clear that she isn’t trying to get away from him or push him, Padmé puts her hand on his arm. “Does this help? Sitting here together?”

Cody nods slowly. She can feel him shaking and he is so tense under her hand.

“Then we can stay here for a while. Obi-Wan, do you mind grabbing some pillows? A blanket would be nice as well.”

He blinks at her for a moment before understanding and using the Force to float the blankets and pillows off the bed and into her hands. She busies herself with arranging them into a nest around the three of them, not realizing until she’s done and they’re comfortable that Obi-Wan has also brought the low table and the snacks.

Cody is still shaking, still on guard, but the wildness is fading from his eyes.

She settles back into her pillows and picks up her datapad that was on the table to start reading her holonovel again.

In Cody’s arms, Obi-Wan’s head is drooping, his eyelids fluttering as Cody runs his hand up and down his back, reassuring himself that he is there.

Slowly, Padmé stretches out to drape her legs over Cody’s thigh, smiling when he relaxes even more. She yawns and turns a page.

“We used to do this, didn’t we?” Cody suddenly asks, lifting his head from where he has been resting his cheek on Obi-Wan’s hair.

“Yeah,” she says. “We’d get together whenever you came back and had some free time, get sloshed and bitch about our Jedi and the idiots in the Senate together. It was – honestly, those are some of my best memories of the war.”

“You ordered food from all sorts of places just so I could try it,” he says slowly. “I taught you hand to hand.”

She smiles sleepily. “Saved my life a few times. We make a good team, don’t we? Someone has to look after these disasters.” She nods at Obi-Wan, snuffling quietly into Cody’s shoulder.

“Yeah,” he agrees, and there is a long silence.

Oh, how she’s missed this.

“Wake me if they bring the kids back?” she mumbles as the datapad falls from her hands a while later, and barely hears his quiet affirmative before she is asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> more subtle signs of anakin messing with time! but nobody has noticed yet. i'm having fun with this


End file.
